Thursday, June 29, 2006

Postcards from Iran to BBC

Here are some postcards in the BBC website about different Iranians opinions about Iran. The postcards are kind of old, April 28th, 2006, but they are very interesting. One of them is from Women Right's activist in Iran, another from a Basiji, another from an Airline pilot that fought in the Iran-Iraq war and the last one is from a shop keeper. I think it's interesting to see different poeple's point of view. I personally think the shopkeeper is wrong. With more freedom comes more prosperity. With dictatorhsips, corruption and poverty emerge. Being afraid of change will not improve Iran's economical problems.

I have the link to the first postcard, from the Women's Right's activist, and on the right hand side, the remaining postcards can be read. I put some snippets from each below:

The Women's Rights Activist:I have read about democracy, freedom of religion and freedom of expression in other countries and would like us to have the same in Iran.

We have the ability to do great things. I think after the revolution a different class system has been created in Iran.

If you have money, you can afford to send your children abroad to study. But the majority of people have to work hard to get what they want and often it is a struggle.

The Basiji:I hope the international community will make the right decision about Iran. When Ayatollah Khomeini, the founder and supreme leader of the Islamic Republic of Iran, said Israel should be wiped off the map, our circumstances were different.

It was just after the revolution and his comment was revolutionary rhetoric more than anything. But things are different now and President Ahmadinehad was wrong to repeat that comment.

His comments only led the world to think that we are a nation at war with everyone. Not all of us agree with his comments. We are a peaceful people.

The Airline pilot that fought in the war:I fought in the war between Iran and Iraq in the 1980s. I lived with one war for seven years and don't want to see another.

Never again do I want to see what I saw in those seven years. Only the victims know what the Iran-Iraq war did to our country.

I lost some of the best years of my life fighting a war. But the war had no good result and that makes me really sad.

The shopkeeper:I don't understand why the West is pressuring Iran over its nuclear plans. I heard about an article written by a prominent American journalist that President Bush's plan is to change the regime in Iran.

But President Bush is wrong. Does he want to turn Iran to another Iraq?

We don't want another war. We have already seen one.

We don't want to change our government. It took years for Iran to have some stability after the 1979 revolution.

Another change will require many more years of adjustment and we don't want that.